Chapter Thirty: Fleeing in Defeat

  That old demon was stunned, the black air's momentum slowed down a bit, but he was too close to the monk. He eventually crashed into him as well, only at a slower speed. The monk let out a loud cry and his body fell backwards, tumbling over the wall.

  That old demon turned his head around and saw Cheng Jun standing in the east. Behind him, a shallow fish belly white appeared on the horizon - the sky was indeed going to brighten up.

  That old demon was shocked and didn't even bother to attack again, transforming into a black smoke and fleeing. Cheng Jun shouted: "Slow down, your home is here."

  Lao Gui turned his head, and saw that Cheng Jun was holding a black wooden sword in his hand. In the morning light, it was dark and almost indistinguishable. But Lao Mo was extremely concerned about the black sword. As soon as he saw it, he exclaimed: "Slow down! Put it down, whatever conditions you want, I'll agree to them."

  Cheng Jun smiled faintly and coldly, suddenly stretched out his hand, a spark of fire ignited, and the entire black sword was instantly engulfed in flames.

  That old demon let out a miserable cry, saying: "You little thief are so ruthless!" Just as he was about to charge over with grief and indignation, he saw Cheng Jun's hand rise, and that ball of flame suddenly flew towards him. The old demon saw his own resting place, the Wumu Sword, flying over, and didn't care about anything else; he opened his mouth and was about to swallow it down, using his own black smoke to extinguish the flames on its body.

  Cheng Jun pointed with his hand and said: "Go—"

  With a loud crash, the Flame Black Sword suddenly burst open from the darkness, emitting tens of thousands of rays of light, like a bright sun rising in the dark night.

  In that ray of light, what was contained wasn't a scorching bright flame, but rather...

  Lightning!

  A bright flame burst out of the dark sword, and it was a myriad of thunder snakes. The thunder snakes spat blue lightning bolts in the air, wreaking havoc. Thunder light is most effective at warding off evil, and the brightness in the darkness did not dwindle with time, but instead grew larger. The black fog became increasingly unstable, and the old demon opened its skull-like mouth, letting out a miserable cry as it swallowed and spat out large amounts of black smoke before fleeing in disarray.

  Suddenly...

  Cheng Jun's face was calm and composed, as if everything was going according to his plan. However, beads of sweat had also formed on his forehead. It was a close call just now; although he had planned to sabotage the old demon's true body from the start, it wouldn't have been so easy for him to enter the underground cave and find the Black Sword if that monk hadn't arrived in time. On the other hand, if that monk hadn't encountered danger, Cheng Jun wouldn't have needed to reveal his own whereabouts prematurely, splitting the old demon's attention and putting himself at risk. Instead, he could have kept a safe distance and slowly used the Black Sword to manipulate the demon king.

  But now it's all right.

  It's not that Cheng Jun had much confidence in his previous move, although he played a fire-in-hiding-thunder trick, breaking through internally with a small skill. In the end, his cultivation was insufficient, and he was limited everywhere. Even if it were a great divine ability, there would be no destructive power to speak of at this time, but that old demon couldn't do evil because——

  The time has come.

  In the east, a wisp of golden light illuminates the sky and earth, as the crimson sun rises above the horizon, heralding the arrival of daytime.

  The sun, the most yang thing in the world, shines brightly at dawn and is the nemesis of all evil spirits. Even the ghost emperor, who has the power to penetrate heaven and earth, will dissolve like frost and snow under the sunlight. All living creatures that live under the sun are protected by it.

  That old demon is powerful, but after losing the Wusword's physical body, it's just a wisp of residual soul. How can it withstand the sun? Now it can still run, but in a few more moments, when sunlight illuminates the earth and fills the space between heaven and earth, there will be no place for it to hide.

  In this case, it has only two options, but these two options are actually just one.

  Cheng Jun is now going to get rid of another one.

  Jumping onto the wall, Cheng Jun said: "Monk, are you okay?"

  "Now it's okay, I just got rid of the blood curse. I thought that old Taoist was just a lecher, but he actually turned out to be a demonic Taoist. He even colluded with some kind of evil spirit or monster and released it in broad daylight to harm people... What a brazen act! Wait till I demolish his temple gate." It turned out that the monk was sitting at the foot of the wall, panting, circulating his breath, and expelling the black air that had invaded his body. From his voice, although he seemed somewhat short of breath, his momentum was still there, and it seemed that nothing serious had happened.

  Cheng Jun Dao said: "Then you just take care of yourself first, you've been chasing after him just now, is there only one old Taoist? Did another little Taoist with cultivation see it too?"

  The monk raised his head and said, "You're talking about a little Taoist who's only at the second level of breath control? That little Taoist is dead. When he saw me, without even waiting for me to say a word, he shouted 'Come on!' I thought he was going to make a move, so I was just about to grab my stuff and give him a good beating. But instead, he grabbed his treasure sword, turned around and ran off - straight into the temple, jumping over the wall and fleeing into the mountains. That old Taoist had two disciples who were knocked down by me and are still lying at the temple gate."

  "Did he really run out?"

  "That monk said: 'Compared with his physical strength, his cultivation is really too low.'"

  "Excellent, no need to waste another effort on me. Let's go."

  "That monk said: 'How did you get away? Although I was hit by a guy, now the sky is bright, that old demon can't get out of his head, and Yuhua Lao Dao alone is not enough to worry about...'"

  Cheng Jun suddenly said: "Where did Yue Hua Lao Dao go?"

  That monk was taken aback, suddenly stood up from the ground and shouted: "Right! Just now when I chased him over here he was still there, where did he run to later? I only paid attention to that old demon and forgot about him for a moment."

  Cheng Jun's eyebrows furrowed, and he suddenly felt a surge of spiritual energy inside him, churning from the inside out, causing discomfort. The suffocating feeling almost made him spit out blood. He was shocked and quickly did an internal scan, but his body was fine. After a brief pause, he exclaimed, "Not good!" and jumped to the monk's side, shouting, "Stop healing at once!"

  The monk was stunned, and suddenly felt the power of the law surging up in his body. His face turned from red to white, and then from white to green. He opened his mouth and let out a loud "whoa", spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood.

  Cheng Jun shouted: "Run quickly, leave the Purple Cloud Temple." As he spoke, he pulled that monk and ran wildly along the original path. He had not dared to use even a bit of spiritual energy while in the temple, and now he was even more cautious, not even daring to circulate his internal true energy, relying solely on his physical strength to run wildly along the wall of the courtyard.

  On this road, although there was no lightning or thunder, no mountains of knives or seas of fire, Cheng Jun felt that it was even more perilous than the collapse of heaven and earth. Although he didn't dare to release even a thread of his spiritual sense, he could still feel the spiritual energy around him wildly surging about. The originally formless and intangible spiritual energy now seemed like blades, like whirlpools, like the most perilous things in the world, crazily wanting to tear him into pieces.

  The longer they ran, the more Cheng Jun could feel the ferocity around him. At first, he didn't dare to use his true energy, and later on, he even dared not breathe, holding his breath as he sprinted towards the back wall with all his might. The two of them rushed to the edge of the wall, and Cheng Jun jumped up, reaching the top of the wall with one leap. With a push of his hand, his body flew over the high wall and landed on the snowy ground. This time, it was not like treading on snow without leaving any footprints; instead, it was as if a thousand pounds had fallen to the ground, making a loud thud. The snow powder splashed everywhere, and the accumulated snow instantly reached his knees.

  Suddenly, there was a loud thud beside him, and that monk also jumped over. His posture was even more awkward than Cheng Jun's. His two legs sank into the snow several feet deep, as if he had been planted in the snowy ground.

  Cheng Jun casually pulled him along, and the two of them left the snowy ground, still sprinting wildly. After a while, they no longer relied solely on their own strength, slowly releasing their true energy, which greatly increased their speed, leaving behind two trails of snow dragons as they rolled northward.

  After walking for dozens of miles, the two finally stopped. Cheng Jun carefully released his spiritual sense to explore the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy, nodded and said: "It's okay this time."

  That monk brushed the snow off his body and scolded, "What kind of trick is this? How can it be that in a peaceful place like the observatory, without seeing any enemy, I was suddenly hit as if by a mallet, and then again as if surrounded and beaten by dozens of people, with all my meridians reversed?"

  Cheng Jun said solemnly: "Break Spirit Formation."

  "That monk said: 'You say it's a Ling Array? Does that thing have such great power? When I first entered the Purple Cloud Temple, I also felt uncomfortable, but it didn't affect my actions or rest. But just now... Good fellow, I saw that the space inside the Purple Cloud Temple was distorted, and the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy was in a state of chaotic upheaval. Does an ordinary Ling Array have such power?"

  Cheng Jun Dao said, "It's a Rui Ling array. It's just a special kind, probably some sect or ancient great repair secret transmission. Just now you and that old demon came to fight, the old Taoist took advantage of the opportunity to slip away, I'm afraid it was to go to the central hub of the array, and urged the Rui Ling array to its limit, so the heaven and earth spiritual energy became chaotic to an unbearable degree."

  He was both vigilant and fearful, but also secretly admiring. With his own skills in array formation, it wasn't impossible to set up such a miraculous Spirit-Repelling Array. However, to maintain its power while allowing someone with as low of a cultivation level as Yue Hua's to activate it... that would require some serious thought. That old demon - if he was indeed the one who set this up - had truly astonishing skills in array formation.

  That monk said incredulously, "If so, then although he wants to harm us, the cost is indeed staggering. The operation of the Array of Spiritual Energy once, it's too exaggerated, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth will take at least several days or even months to recover normally. If something goes wrong, it's common to cause a permanent spiritual energy disorder, this Purple Cloud Temple may become an absolute forbidden land. Does he still want to stay in that place?"

  Cheng Jun murmured, "Firstly, he probably didn't think of the Purple Cloud Temple as a place that needed to be carefully managed, and secondly, he may not have known about its dangers. Perhaps he's now regretting... no, he definitely won't regret it, because he can no longer regret it." The last sentence was spoken in an increasingly soft tone.

  That monk didn't hear clearly, and said: "It's not good to go out, the fire hasn't been lit yet, but I was forced to roll out of the Purple Cloud Temple myself. It's really infuriating. The monk is still recovering now, so I need to find a quiet place to recuperate for a while. When I'm better, you'll see how I get back at them. Where... where do you think it's good to recover?"

  Cheng Jun Dao said: "Go to Xiao He Shang's place. Don't you want to see him too?"